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Pence hits Trump by deleting a comma [1]
['Carla Sinclair']
Date: 2023-11-28
The small but potent comma might seem like an innocuous part of English grammar, but sometimes it can radically change the meaning of a sentence — as in the old example, "Lets eat, Grandma," vs. "Lets eat Grandma." And sometimes, a misplaced comma can make the difference when it comes to evidence of a Trump trial, as is the case with what Vice President Mike Pence says he didn't mean to write.
The sentence in question comes from Pence's book, So Help Me God, in which he said he told Donald Trump right before the Capitol insurrection, "You know, I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome." But what Pence really meant, he later told special counsel Jack Smith's team, was, "You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome."
It might be a subtle difference, but the commaless version "changes the tenor and meaning of what he reportedly told Trump from a casual aside to a more declarative command," as Mediaite puts it.
From ABC News:
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